The History of Buddhist Thought c12.89

c12.89

Again, the monk, as if he had seen a corpse in a cemetery dead for one, two, or three days, swollen, discoloured, and decomposed, reflects, and so applies it to its own body ; then as if he had seen it eaten by crows, vultures, dogs, and other creatures ; then as reduced to a scattered collection of bones, and, lastly, as whitened bones the colour of a shell, or reduced to powder ; and in each case he reflects as before. This portion was later developed into the ten asubha, in which there are ten stages of decomposition.¹